Remove a toolbar that has taken over your Firefox search or home page

Firefox Firefox Last updated: 35% of users voted this helpful

This article will help you remove third-party toolbars like Ask, searchqu, MyStart, incredibar, seeearch, somoto, sweetim, uTorrent, and others from Firefox and restore your default home page, New tab page and search settings. For help removing the Babylon toolbar, see How to remove the Babylon toolbar, home page and search engine.

How did this happen?

Toolbars from third-party software providers can change your search, New Tab and home page settings or cause other problems with Firefox. These toolbars can get added to Firefox when you visit a website and click on an "Install" link, when you download and run a toolbar installer, or when you install software that includes a Firefox toolbar. Be careful when installing or updating other applications and make sure you deselect any options for toolbars or other bundled software that you don't want.

Also, some software providers offer their own version of Firefox that includes a toolbar and other customizations (for instance, Mozilla Firefox® optimized for Yahoo!) so always make sure you download Firefox from the Firefox download page.

How do I fix it?

Note: The Refresh Firefox feature can fix many issues by restoring Firefox to its default state while saving your essential information. Consider using it before going through a lengthy troubleshooting process.

Use the Add-ons Manager to remove the toolbar

In most cases, third-party toolbars can be uninstalled from Firefox Add-ons Manager Extensions list, as follows:

  1. Click the menu button Fx89menuButton, click Add-ons and themes and select Extensions.
  2. Select the toolbar you wish to remove.
  3. Click the Remove button.
  4. Click Restart now if it pops up. Your tabs will be saved and restored after the restart.

If you can't remove the toolbar from the Add-ons Manager, use the "Disable" option as a workaround, or see the Cannot remove an add-on (extension or theme) article for other solutions.

Restore the default home page or search settings

You may need to reset your Firefox search preferences and restore the default New Tab page, home page and search engine after removing the toolbar. For more information, see the articles Change your default search settings in Firefox, New Tab page in Firefox and How to set the home page.

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